"Here’s a Times story in which you can read a then-little-know Steve Bannon raving about the film and how '99 per cent of the content in the media’s sewage pipes is the culture of death, not life.'"
Given how Republicans rely on baseless fear mongering, it's a huge load of chutzpah (a Satanic witch term, if I'm not mistaken (JK)) to make that complaint.
The again, given that conservatives refuse to criticize what they should criticize, all they have left to whine about is bullshit. Which, for that matter, they're the true snowflakes.
Roy, I read your Twitter reply to Jeet Heer the other day, when Jeet asserted that Dreher is “guileless.” Of course I agree with your counterpoint that Dreher is a vicious grifter, although his trans/homophobia, racism, and misogyny aren’t an act but are very, very real. His grift is just his more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger plea that the world he wants is really the best alternative for the common good.
But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villiany
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil
Old Will knew a thing or two about pious grifters. These types have always been with us for as long as there has been religion.
Fantasy was my everpresent help in time of need as a nerdy kid in the sticks...Mom worried that I'd get "weird ideas" from all that sci fi/fantasy I sucked down in the '60's and 70's. If only she knew.
As awful as Asimov and Heinlein could be, as sexist as PK Dick and Phillip Jose Farmer were, they helped liberate me from the surly bonds of evangelical Xtianity.
I've come to think of the flights of religious fantasy that Dreher and the Anchoress and all the insane folks who fill the world with demons (remember Pat Robertson's "spirit filled police" empowered to detect and prosecute spiritual and supernatural crimes??) is their imaginations have been captured and channeled though the materials in their religious teachings..
Some malicious idiot is going to burn some poor deluded soul as a witch and claim it's protected by religious freedom..
People like Rod are worried that you will turn to the occult to answer your questions, deal with your problems, explain the nature of your world. Rod prefers--demands, actually--that you turn to the Great Being that Dwells in the Sky who, along with His Son/Not Son and The Holy Spirit, rules over Heaven and Earth with Omniscience and Omnipotence.
Well, with limited omniscience and omnipotence. Eh, when you think about it, with no power at all. Indeed, in the telling of most evangelicals, their God is completely powerless in the face of a book or a movie, absolutely unable to overcome the influence of a random man wearing a dress, and vulnerable to destruction by anyone who stops to think for themselves.
A boy who wears a dress on special occasions like Halloween isn't necessary genderfluid. (I did as a kid, and I'm as cis-gendered as anyone out there.) Hasn't Rod Dreher ever heard of drag? Or do we have to lock him in a room with nothing but DVDs of Monty Python's Flying Circus, Some Like it Hot, & Tootsie to comfort him until he comes to his senses?
An amazing example of this is the renaissance of an early focus of Satanic Panic, Dungeons and Dragons, as a safe space for marginalized groups. https://youtu.be/9gUcx45ryT0
“when you get home from that you can rely on fantasy to rewrite the script”
I often think of the MST3K episode “The Girl in Lovers Lane,” where at the end Crow and Servo were very angry that the nice lady died in the (bad) movie. Joel replied, “You don’t have to accept the ending they gave you. You can write your own ending.” —which led to Crow and Servo enthusiastically rewriting the ending with increasingly hilarious and incongruous plot elements. And they were happy.
Servo: “And then there’s a twist, and then you learn something, and then you go home.”
The older I get, the more I realize that this world is full of pain, and all of us really should feel some obligation to just help our fellow humans get by, or at the very fucking least, not to add to the sum total of pain that already exists.
But there are people - and I'm using the term loosely there - who think that pain is "character-building" or even "purifying" who will resist all attempts to make life less pain-filled, and i don't really know what to say about these people any more, except that they should hire a Dom and go at it if they love pain so goddamn much, and just leave the rest of us the fuck alone.
Great work, Roy. I came for the crazy Dreher and got a thoughtful flip on fantasy, shame and fear. I hope you're right and we'll escape the looming new dark ages. I remember the satanic panic. I used to get my yuks following the different strains of High Weirdness. But then the Internet made this accessible to everyone with a modem, 24/7. And it didn't seem so funny. Maybe I just grew up. But it strikes me how little has changed with QAnon or David Icke or even the vaccine refuseniks. And there are still people in jail based on the imaginations of impressionable little kids and guys like the exorcist whisperer. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/08/24/accused-of-satanism-they-spent-21-years-in-prison-they-were-just-declared-innocent-and-were-paid-millions/
i get the feeling that for Rod, a cigar is always a dick.
"Here’s a Times story in which you can read a then-little-know Steve Bannon raving about the film and how '99 per cent of the content in the media’s sewage pipes is the culture of death, not life.'"
Given how Republicans rely on baseless fear mongering, it's a huge load of chutzpah (a Satanic witch term, if I'm not mistaken (JK)) to make that complaint.
The again, given that conservatives refuse to criticize what they should criticize, all they have left to whine about is bullshit. Which, for that matter, they're the true snowflakes.
"My friend, the
Louisiana exorcist..." I love it when someone sounds like they are trying to parody themselves. Crazy meta, that.
"Moldy figs" is a great descriptive phrase! Does it pertain to anything in particular? It doesn't need to.
Satanic panic people following Donald Trump is...I mean, if anyone has Antichrist cooties it's Donald Trump.
Roy, I read your Twitter reply to Jeet Heer the other day, when Jeet asserted that Dreher is “guileless.” Of course I agree with your counterpoint that Dreher is a vicious grifter, although his trans/homophobia, racism, and misogyny aren’t an act but are very, very real. His grift is just his more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger plea that the world he wants is really the best alternative for the common good.
But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villiany
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil
Old Will knew a thing or two about pious grifters. These types have always been with us for as long as there has been religion.
Fantasy was my everpresent help in time of need as a nerdy kid in the sticks...Mom worried that I'd get "weird ideas" from all that sci fi/fantasy I sucked down in the '60's and 70's. If only she knew.
As awful as Asimov and Heinlein could be, as sexist as PK Dick and Phillip Jose Farmer were, they helped liberate me from the surly bonds of evangelical Xtianity.
I've come to think of the flights of religious fantasy that Dreher and the Anchoress and all the insane folks who fill the world with demons (remember Pat Robertson's "spirit filled police" empowered to detect and prosecute spiritual and supernatural crimes??) is their imaginations have been captured and channeled though the materials in their religious teachings..
Some malicious idiot is going to burn some poor deluded soul as a witch and claim it's protected by religious freedom..
People like Rod are worried that you will turn to the occult to answer your questions, deal with your problems, explain the nature of your world. Rod prefers--demands, actually--that you turn to the Great Being that Dwells in the Sky who, along with His Son/Not Son and The Holy Spirit, rules over Heaven and Earth with Omniscience and Omnipotence.
Well, with limited omniscience and omnipotence. Eh, when you think about it, with no power at all. Indeed, in the telling of most evangelicals, their God is completely powerless in the face of a book or a movie, absolutely unable to overcome the influence of a random man wearing a dress, and vulnerable to destruction by anyone who stops to think for themselves.
"My friend, the Louisiana exorcist, strongly warned against it (and told pretty scary personal stories to explain his point)."
His cousin's friend once played Dungeons and Dragons on Halloween night, and his balls swelled up so badly he had to cancel his wedding?
A boy who wears a dress on special occasions like Halloween isn't necessary genderfluid. (I did as a kid, and I'm as cis-gendered as anyone out there.) Hasn't Rod Dreher ever heard of drag? Or do we have to lock him in a room with nothing but DVDs of Monty Python's Flying Circus, Some Like it Hot, & Tootsie to comfort him until he comes to his senses?
An amazing example of this is the renaissance of an early focus of Satanic Panic, Dungeons and Dragons, as a safe space for marginalized groups. https://youtu.be/9gUcx45ryT0
Every word, Roy. Bravo.
There's no actual war on Christmas but there sure is one against Halloween.
“when you get home from that you can rely on fantasy to rewrite the script”
I often think of the MST3K episode “The Girl in Lovers Lane,” where at the end Crow and Servo were very angry that the nice lady died in the (bad) movie. Joel replied, “You don’t have to accept the ending they gave you. You can write your own ending.” —which led to Crow and Servo enthusiastically rewriting the ending with increasingly hilarious and incongruous plot elements. And they were happy.
Servo: “And then there’s a twist, and then you learn something, and then you go home.”
"and why Halloween still gives them the willies"
This is just fucking icy-diamond rhetoric here, yo
The older I get, the more I realize that this world is full of pain, and all of us really should feel some obligation to just help our fellow humans get by, or at the very fucking least, not to add to the sum total of pain that already exists.
But there are people - and I'm using the term loosely there - who think that pain is "character-building" or even "purifying" who will resist all attempts to make life less pain-filled, and i don't really know what to say about these people any more, except that they should hire a Dom and go at it if they love pain so goddamn much, and just leave the rest of us the fuck alone.
Great work, Roy. I came for the crazy Dreher and got a thoughtful flip on fantasy, shame and fear. I hope you're right and we'll escape the looming new dark ages. I remember the satanic panic. I used to get my yuks following the different strains of High Weirdness. But then the Internet made this accessible to everyone with a modem, 24/7. And it didn't seem so funny. Maybe I just grew up. But it strikes me how little has changed with QAnon or David Icke or even the vaccine refuseniks. And there are still people in jail based on the imaginations of impressionable little kids and guys like the exorcist whisperer. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/08/24/accused-of-satanism-they-spent-21-years-in-prison-they-were-just-declared-innocent-and-were-paid-millions/